White House rift widens between Rubio and Witkoff over Ukraine peace efforts
A rift between top White House officials over what is the best policy to end the war in Ukraine has widened, NBC News reported on December 23.
An argument has developed between the hawks and doves in the Trump administration. The hawks are led by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff who is leading the negotiations with Russia. They believe that Ukraine will never regain the five territories occupied and annexed by Russia and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy should concede them to Russian President Vladimir Putin. More recently, Witkoff has been joined by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is believed to be US President Donald Trump’s personal representative in the talks and is also sympathetic to the Russian position.
The doves are led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has a softer view and is more supportive of the European position that as part of any peace deal Russia should withdraw from some of the territories it occupies and is a stronger backer of the Kyiv position than the hawks.
Tensions surfaced within the US foreign policy apparatus over Ukraine after the Miami meeting on December 20-21 failed to make any progress. NBC News reported an ongoing behind-the-scenes rivalry between Rubio and Witkoff over the direction of peace talks with Kyiv flared up again.
The dispute involves multiple instances in which Witkoff has arranged meetings and informal diplomatic initiatives without Rubio’s involvement or approval. A deepening power struggle within the Trump team is growing as it seeks to define its approach to ending the war in Ukraine, according to more than a dozen current and former US and European officials cited by NBC News.
One senior Trump administration official quoted by NBC said: “It is so clear that Rubio has been cut out of this. He should be the guy leading all of this.”
A similar thing has happened to the Russian side, where Russia’s veteran Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has largely been cut out of the negotiations and reportedly tried to exclude the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, who is leading the Russian delegation. Neither Witkoff or Dmitriev are professional diplomats. Both are businessmen and have been negotiating business deals in parallel to the peace talks throughout the talks this year.
Tensions in the US top echelon have been building since at least April 2025, when Rubio, then due to meet French officials in Paris for Ukraine-related talks, discovered that the French Foreign Ministry had already scheduled a separate engagement with Witkoff. French officials reportedly suggested Rubio could attend the meeting personally arranged by Witkoff, and he eventually joined the conversation.
The rivalry intensified in November, when Witkoff held a series of undisclosed meetings with Ukrainian officials, including in Geneva. According to NBC News, Rubio only learned about the talks after Ukrainian interlocutors asked his representatives about them directly.
Witkoff’s approach—widely seen as more transactional and aligned with Donald Trump’s public overtures towards Russia—has also clashed with State Department officials. Disagreements have centred in particular on his contacts with Moscow and his broader stance on US–Russia relations.
“Some in the Trump administration have questioned the appropriateness of Witkoff using his private jet to fly to Moscow, especially given the lack of secure communications,” one source told NBC.
In May, following growing concerns, both the US State Department and the Trump transition team initiated a review into Witkoff’s activities, including the use of a private aircraft and the absence of secure government communication systems on board. “But there are still concerns that Witkoff is not consistently using the secure government communication systems,” said a US official with direct knowledge of the matter.
Despite these internal frictions, the White House, Rubio and Witkoff have maintained a public stance of unity. Officials continue to insist that both the Secretary of State and the special envoy are working together to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Rubio has previously distanced himself from Trump’s remarks on Ukraine, particularly after Trump suggested in November that the US administration was split into “two camps” over how to end the war. Rubio dismissed the idea as “fake news” at the time, but the NBC News report suggests deeper divisions are playing out behind closed doors.
After the Trump team floated the original 28-point peace plan (28PPP), also known as Witkoff-Dmitriev plan, Rubio undermined that proposal by calling a Geneva summit on November 23 where the EU and Ukraine produced their own version of the plan that the Kremlin rejected out of hand.
Witkoff, a property developer and long-time Trump associate, was appointed as special envoy to Ukraine earlier this year. His unconventional diplomatic style and lack of formal diplomatic experience have drawn criticism, particularly from traditional foreign policy figures.
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